1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to means for the production of agricultural products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 484,294, Carlson, discloses an automatic water sprinkler. The automatic sprinkler may be guided along a desired path by a rope placed on the ground, the sprinkler traversing the rope with wheels on each side of the rope. At the end of its desired path, the automatic sprinkler strikes an object such as a pre-placed stake, thereby causing the gears of the automatic sprinkler to reverse and the automatic sprinkler to travel back to its original path until it gets to its starting point, where it again strikes another stake and reverses its gears. The automatic sprinkler travels back and forth between the two stakes until stopped.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,079,817, Williamson, discloses a sprinkling device which travels back and forth suspended from a pipe track from which the vehicle draws water periodically through valves. The water drawn from the pipe track can be utilized not only for irrigating purposes but, while falling under the influence of gravity, strikes paddle wheels in the sprinkling device to move the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,142,442, Lord, discloses an automatic lawn sprinkler which is adapted to run on tracks over a desired path, the described lawn sprinkler utilizing a double winch with a draw cable extending in each direction along the track so that at the end of its travel the lawn sprinkler reverses its direction, returns to its starting point and is there automatically stopped. The lawn sprinkler is powered by a water jet striking against a water wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,578,981, Parker, discloses an electronically operated irrigation system, in this patent, sprinklers are under the control of a fixed timer. The timer selects an appropriate time for a soil moisture test and, if the soil moisture test calls for irrigation, the system proceeds through a fixed routine until the irrigation cycle is completed, thereafter being inactive until the timer indicates another soil moisture sample should be taken. In the Parker system, the moisture sensor is not independent of ion concentrations, the moisture sensor cannot be sampled at any desired time and the entire system must be duplicated for each sensor, all features which are unlike the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,674,490, Richards, discloses an irrigation system controlled by a single soil moisture sensor of the tensionometer type. The tensionometer actuates a timer through a vacuum line and, in a manner similar to U.S. Pat. No. 2,578,981, Parker, the timer initiates an irrigation cycle which must be completely run through prior to completion of the cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,831,434, Hunter et al, discloses a mechanical system for controlling irritation apparatus which essentially can be utilized to serve only one sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,037,704, Kinigsberg et al, discloses an electromechanical automatic control for irrigation systems involving a soil moisture sensor which depends upon electrical conductivity between two electrodes for the sensing of soil moisture, rendering the sensor susceptible to error due to ions found in soil. Kinigsberg makes no provision for space division or time division switching.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,114,243, Winters, provides an automatic system of ditch irrigation where the flow of water from the ditch to rows is controlled by solenoid operated gates under the control of a radio receiver which receives signals from a soil moisture sensor. The soil moisture sensor of Winters is, of course, not subject to feedback loop control and, once an irrigation cycle is initiated, it must be taken to completion until all fields are flooded and the contact at the meter location is opened. Further, Winters suggests the use of only one sensor on the entire farm.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,539, Kelly describes a system for heating, irrigating, and fertilizing a farm. The Kelly system is an open-loop system providing no provisions for feedback loop control.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,676, Rauchwerger, provides electronic means for automatically controlling a sprinkler system, which can be used only for controlling one function, viz, water irrigation. The Rauchwerger system can be utilized to serve only one homogenous agricultural area; to serve other areas, duplicating essentially the entire system of Rauchwerger is necessary. Finally, in Rauchwerger a photocell is utilized to inactivate the system in the daytime, a feature which is not desirable, and, in Rauchwerger a thermistor inactivates the system at 32.degree. F, rendering the system useless for frost protection.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,354,579, Gross et al, discloses a system for the prevention of frost damage. The Gross et al system is an open-loop system, i.e., no sensors are provided. Further, the utilization of hot air and smudge in Gross et al is not an efficient means of frost protection and, in fact, can lead to dangerous air pollution. In Gross et al since no sprinkler heads or the like are provided, it is impossible for the system to provide a spraying function.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,794, Behlen discloses a hydraulically powered self-propelled, continuously fed irrigation device. The Behlen device is for flat rectangular fields, is not adapted to arbitrarily chosen terrain, and is, essentially, not automatically controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,442, Houston, teaches an irrigation method wherein slots are dug into the ground approximately eight inches deep and four inches wide, filled with mulch or other permeable material, and thereafter a machine is run over the slots discharging water into the slots. The machine is charged manually, the water being taken from hydrants positioned throughout the field, and no provision is made for a common irrigation system which accomplishes many functions in addition to irrigation, nor is the system provided with the capability for a feedback loop relationship with a computer. Rather, the system is simply prescheduled to apply a uniform amount of water to every slot, whether required or not.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,178, Friedlander, discloses a traveling agricultural sprinkler which is provided with a reel utilized to take up a cable laid down by the sprinkler during its run. The travelling sprinkler is driven by way of water fed to the travelling sprinkler by a hose, which water is directed against a turbine wheel or impeller to drive the sprinkler. When the travelling sprinkler reaches the end of its run, a conventional tractor or the like must be hooked to the sprinkler and the power take-off of the tractor coupled to the pipe take-up reel of the travelling sprinkler to provide energy to rewind the pipe take-up reel. Water is then cut off and the water pipe decoupled from the travelling sprinkler and sprinkling means. The tractor then moves the vehicle and retraces the original path of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,720, Courtright discloses a winchdriven water spray irrigation device which comprises a fourwheel pipe frame structure carrying a large water gun. In operation, a tractor draws the device to its starting point, where the device is uncoupled from the tractor. A steel cable is then pulled from a winch on the device and carried across the field to be irrigated to the end of the travel of the device. The end of the cable is there attached to a stake in the ground called a "dead man". A water hose is then attached to the rear of the machine and, by operating a manual clutch, water is supplied to the machine. The water drives a water turbine, or fluid motor, which in turn is geared down to drive the winch to pull the device across the field to the "dead man". Upon reaching the "dead man", brakes in the device are operated automatically while the water gun continues to rotate and discharge water. At that time, it is necessary to cut the water off, go to the device, disconnect the water hose and winch cable, turn the device around and pull it to the next area to be located whereafter the above operation is repeated. No provision is made for accomplishing functions other than irrigation, for example, pruning, brush removing, thinning, picking or conveying. Further, the device described cannot be considered self-propelled; it cannot travel either forward or in reverse, it must drag along substantial amounts of agricultural hose, and it is not provided with elevating means to achieve control in the vertical dimension.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,564, Baldocchi, discloses apparatus adapted to automatically travel between two rows of low plants, such as cotton plants, and dispense insecticide upward into the branches of the plants. The device is open-loop controlled by radio means.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,660,021, McDowell, discloses a tractor-drawn machine for picking berries wherein the machine is adapted to straddle the berry plants, and, by blasts of air generated from two fans carried on the machine, knock the berries from the plant into catch basins disposed on opposite sides of the plant, which catch basins are carried by the berry-picking machine. There is no provision described in the McDowell patent for conveying fruit from the berry-picking machine utilizing a water conveyor, nor is the McDowell device adapted to pick two rows at the same time.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,996,868, Voelker, discloses a pneumatic fruit harvester which is carried on or mounted on the body of a flat bed truck. The device is moved beneath the tree from which the fruit is to be harvested and, by way of air jets generated by the pneumatic harvester, fruit is knocked from the tree from below. Enormous quantities of air are required by the device described in the Voelker patent, and the device is not capable of surrounding the tree, rather, it only rests on the ground underneath the branches to be picked and a complete picking requires a number of movements around the tree. There is, of course, no suggestion whatsoever of a water conveying system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,099, Fricks, discloses a berry harvester which essentially comprises a moveable platform having two tilted troughs on either side thereof. The device is particularly adapted for harvesting fruit which grows upon vines which can be trained to grow on a trellis. The fruit is knocked from the vines, using, for example, a compressed air vibrator, and as the fruit falls from the vines it is allowed to fall into the troughs which contain water. The troughs are sloped, and a conveyor belt is mounted along the back of the apparatus for transporting water containing the berries in suspension into a tank mounted on the device. No provision is made in the Fricks patent for conveying the fruit in a water conveyor, nor is there provision for a continuous water supply.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,194, Mohn et al, discloses a berrypicking machine wherein fluid sprays are utilized to dislodge the fruit; the device is specific to the picking of berries. In the device described by Mohn et al, a water storage tank is described as mounted on the apparatus. Berry-catching means are provided at the bottom portion of the device to catch the berries which are dislodged from the plant by the fluid sprays. No provision is provided by Mohn et al for the continuous supply of water to the berry-picking machine nor for the continuous removal of picked fruit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,746, Lee, discloses a method and apparatus for selecting plants of a crop for harvesting, apparently being limited to small vegetables such as lettuce plants. Means are provided for sensing the size of the plant and for removing all plants that do not meet the size requirements built into the sensing device.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,696, Miller et al, discloses harvesting apparatus which is provided with oscillatory tine means whereby, as the device travels by a tree, the tine means are vertically reciprocated and the rate of forward movement of the device is correlated with the horizontal movement of the tine means so that the horizontal movement of the tines relative to the tree is zero, whereby shaking is avoided. Catching means are provided beneath the tines including a web which receives the fruit, a conveyor beneath the web to receive the fruit and a water tank which receives the fruit from the conveyor. A padded roller is provided in the water tank to submerge the fruit and to transport the fruit away from the conveyor discharge area. The device described by Miller et al is not self-propelled, can effectively work on only one side of the tree, and, importantly, is provided with no means for conveying the harvested fruit away from the machine nor with a continuous water supply.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,442, White, discloses a method and apparatus for picking citrus fruit by submerging the trees temporarily in water; in greater detail, a tank encloses the tree, the tank is filled with water and the rising water removes the citrus fruit from the tree due to the buoyancy of the citrus fruit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,131, McDowell, discloses an improvement upon the earlier discussed McDowell patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,660,021. The device described is a pneumatic machine in which the fans of the earlier McDowell patent are replaced by a series of ducts in which the air can be pulsated to provide a shaking effect to the berry plant being picked. The ducts are present on only one side of the machine, and the berries are blown to the other side of the machine, generally through the berry plant.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,050, Rozinska, discloses a machine for picking blueberries similar to the earlier described McDowell machines except that a deflector is inserted between the branches of the berry plants so as to bend the branches outward and over pick-up arms provided in the device, an air stream stripping the berries from the branches to either side and downward to the pickup arms provided on the blueberry picker. The requirement of utilizing a deflector in the Rozinska patent renders the described device useless for removing fruit from large plants such as trees which may not have separable branches and, in fact, which may be grown on a central leader system such as is typically used with dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees. The general principles utilized are similar to those of the earlier McDowell patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,316, Eberhart, discloses electronic control means for crop thinning. The Eberhart patent does not describe a complete thinning system; it relates primarily to control means for such a system. While no detailed description is provided on the machine which accomplishes thinning, apparently it would be similar to a mechanical roto-tiller or a cutting knife which can be raised and lowered from the ground to remove excess plants in a row, such as corn, soy beans and the like. The machine which performs the thinning is controlled by a sensor which detects the presence of a plant by resistance contact therewith. The sensor controls whether or not the hoeing head is lowered or raised in accordance with a set of options provided by the controller. The present invention, on the other hand, is primarily directed in its thinning function to orchards, rather than small ground plants such as corn or soy beans, though the general approach could be adapted to plants of any size.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,316, Cascarine, is quite similar to the Eberhart patent in disclosing the use of a conventional tractor pulling a hoeing device for automatically removing excess plants in a row, the device being specifically developed for thinning beet roots.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,955,749, Jones, discloses means for washing, brushing, polishing and similar operations upon the surface of fruit which comprises a series of circular rotary brushes provided with transverse grooves to retain the fruit as it is impelled from brush-to-brush, a conveyor system being mounted beneath the transverse brushes and the fruit being immersed in water while passing through the apparatus. The described device is extremely complicated, and fruit reversal means are required. Further, there is no provision for feeding fruit to the described device while it is carried in water and, since the system is essentially a closed system, no level control means are provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,162,415, Allen, discloses apparatus for handling fruits wherein the fruits are transported in a preserving liquid such as a sulphur dioxide solution. As described in Allen, fruit is unloaded from boxes onto a belt conveyor system, and thence dumped into a trough, contacted therein with preserving sulphur dioxide in solution, and carried into a storage tank. The fruit maintained in the sulphur dioxide solution can thus be stored for substantial periods of time. Excess sulphur dioxide solution is placed in storage container 19 as shown in Allen. When it is desired to take the fruit from solution, an outlet at the bottom of the tank is opened and fruit is removed from the storage tank by way of a discharge pipe under the influence of gravity. The fruit then falls into a second trough which contains sulphur dioxide in solution, and is removed therefrom by conventional belt conveyor immersed in one end thereof. The sulphur dioxide solution from the second trough may be recirculated to the fruit storage container or the sulphur dioxide solution storage container. In the present invention, of course, it is unnecessary to utilize a preserving liquid as is disclosed in Allen. Rather, in accordance with the present invention, storage is typically conducted under water maintained at a low temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,362,130, Glenn, discloses means for grading fruit by specific gravity wherein fruit is introduced into a tank of liquid on a platform and a stream of flowing water carries the fruit from the platform into a series of grading screens, the fruit dispersing to the appropriate grading screen due to specific gravity differences. The grading screens permit water to be removed from the fruit and recirculated in the system prior to the fruit being introduced into storage containers. The device described in the Glenn patent is relatively complicated, and requires a large standing fluid reservoir and a circulating pump. Further, there is no provision for water conveyors into and out of the Glenn device and extremely accurate control of water is needed. The device is operable only for items which have a specific gravity greater than 1.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,265, Smith, discloses liquid feeding and positioning means for fruit and vegetables. The object of the described device is to receive dry fruit or vegetables dumped into a large water-filled hopper and thereafter convey the same on an endless conveyor provided with position cups in the bottom thereof. In one embodiment, a single file of fruit or vegetables is obtained for the purpose of subsequent grading and counting. The conveyor is inclined upwardly so that the articles are not only positioned and spaced on the conveyor but are also drained of water as they rise from the holding tank. This is necessary since subsequent operations must be performed when the fruit or vegetables are dry. As exemplified in FIG. 9 of the Smith patent, the fruit or vegetables can be graded using a photocell. There is no provision in the Smith patent for the introduction of fruit in water, whereby a pump and recirculator and agitators are unnecessary as is the case in the present invention. Further, the grading means of the Smith patent is capable of measuring only a single variable, an integrated measurement of the color of the fruit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,687, Ellis, discloses apparatus for feeding fruit from a bulk supply into a pick-up station where pieces of fruit are floated in a continuous trough and recirculated until they are picked up by a conveyor. The device described in the Ellis patent is relatively complicated and, by necessity, requires a recirculating path for the fruit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,917, Rousselie et al, discloses a fruit grading plant wherein fruit enters the packing plant in boxes and is removed by immersing the boxes in water so that the fruit floats up and into the grading machine. No provision is made in the Rousselie et al packing plant for the direct receipt of fruit from an orchard in flotation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,493, Barry, discloses an automatic farming system wherein a machine intended to accomplish primarily plowing, cultivating, discing, harrowing and the like is mounted on rails laid out in parallel across a field in a manner such that the device can move itself from track to track.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,379, Rushing et al, discloses automatic farming apparatus wherein a tractor pulling a plow or the like is adapted to trace a path defined by buried conductors in a field, a separate conductor being buried along the edges of the field for controlling the turning of the vehicle. A digital control system is provided by which the operation of the vehicles steering means, the vehicle throttle, implement positioning means and the like is controlled by pre-selected combinations of control pulses which may be generated upon crossing a control wire or by a radio receiver responsive to a plurality of separate signals. In accordance with the teachings of the Rushing et al patent, once the cable system is laid in the ground, a fixed pattern of operation is set, and it is impossible to vary the pattern of operation of the described device without relocating the cable system or introducing new cables. While the use of radio signals is suggested, no feedback means of any type are disclosed in the Rushing et al patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,609,913, Rose, discloses a method of controlling weeds along a row of plants wherein the weeds can be smaller than, or at least no greater in size than, the desired plant. Essentially, a wheel-mounted tank containing herbicide travels over a row of plants and, when an undesired weed is detected, herbicide is applied to the weed. Detection of undesirable weeds is pre-controlled and is conducted by direct sensing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,123,304, Sutton, discloses an orchard-treating system wherein irrigation and related functions are accomplished utilizing special sprinkler headers in conjunction with both air and water lines leading to the special sprinkler headers from a central station. The system described in the Sutton patent is, however, an open-loop system-i.e., no provision is made for closed feedback loops involving sensors, a data transmission system and effectors which make the system automatic. As later explained, however, the sprinkler headers described in the Sutton patent can be used in the agricultural system of the present invention.
The following references are cited as being of marginal interest:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,744,363, Chapman; U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,488, Zebarth; U.S. Pat. No. 2,975,055, Brown et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,001,656, Brooks et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,097, Nokes; U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,557, Manzer; U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,360, Nishimura et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,258, Charney.